E-Commerce: Challenges And Opportunities For Developing Countries

Today's world is the world of technology advancement and globlisation. The Internet has opened up a new horizon for trade and commerce, namely electronic commerce (e-commerce) has a chance to be widely adopted due to its simple applications. E-commerce has a significant impact on business costs and productivity. Thus it has a large economic impact. It gives the opportunity for “boundary crossing” as new entrants, business models, and changes in technology erode the barriers that used to separate one industry from another. This increases competition and innovation, which are likely to boost overall economic efficiency. E-Commerce brings some new technology and new capabilities to business, but the fundamental business problems are those that merchants have faced for hundred -even thousands -of years: they must have something to sell, make it known to potential buyers, accept payment deliver the goods or services, and provide appropriate service after the sale. E-Commerce has solved these problems of merchants. The objective of this research is to investigate the utility of e-commerce to a developing country and also to a business firm, and the factors that lead to better implementation of e-commerce in each type of business firm. Understanding the online consumers’ decision-making process plays a central role in a retailer's ability to design and deploy systems that cater to the consumers’ needs. By understanding the steps of the consumer's decision-making process, a retailer can reduce the tangible as well as cognitive costs by providing supporting information and helping consumers choose one of several alternatives.